2 x 4 Challenge: I'm done (I'm finished)

I definitely know where you are coming from….but from the guy who spent a full week experimenting with steam, forms, chemicals, and pure “sticktoitness” figuring out how to steam-bend my 2X4: Don’t give up! I posted the secrets to bending softwood in my blog…..you CAN pull it off. My project has a dozen steam bent parts around a 4” radius.

It was by far the most difficult bending I have ever done, but it is doable…...seriously, don’t give up! :)

If you need more info, just shoot me a P)M and I’ll answer any questions you have.

Ryan

-- If you can't set a good example, at least serve as a horrible warning... www.rarewoodcreations.com

You could also glue up real thin veneers or a lot of small pieces. Don’t give up.

You have posted a project on Lumberjocks so you can vote. It’s not just a posting a project in the contest.

Also don’t give your vote away yet. You still haven’t seen the other projects. I have a feeling
some great ones will be posted at the last minute.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

That’s one heck of a challenge you set yourself Rikkor! I’d honestly love to have seen that done. Can you still do it with Ryan’s advice??

-- Res severa verum gaudium - True pleasure is a serious business.

I doubt it. The wood was already thinned to .080” I wet it like I always do. I gave the bending iron a full half hour to heat up. I proceeded slowly but relentlessly. I had my mister at the ready. It still scortched, split, and cracked cross-grain. I have made these bends on mahogany with little or no problem. Fir just isn’t a good bending wood from a luthier prospective.

Here’s a mahogany body on my last uke.

-- Maplewood, MN

Did you use a bending strap to support the piece on the bending iron. This really helps a lot.
I couldn’t have bent the curly maple sides of my violin without it.

I use a strip of sheet metal but you can also buy them:

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

with all this support…. maybe one more try is all you need… ok maybe 3…
we’re rooting for you!!!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Mrs YS just said, in hindsight, maybe a 4×2 of mahogany or similar would have been the answer..

-- Res severa verum gaudium - True pleasure is a serious business.

Thanks Gary. I do have a stainless steel, factory made bending strap. I just don’t think construction grade fir was meant to be bent into aesthetic shapes.

-- Maplewood, MN

I feel really bad you had all of that hard work, & anguish.

Do the rules specify pine, why not a mahogany 2 X 4?

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Maybe so Dick, but there isn’t enough January now.

-- Maplewood, MN

Thats too bad :(

Well…if you ever try it again, soak the strips in a 1:10 mix of Glycerine and water….or a 1:5 mix of Fabric softener and water for 24-48 hours..then try. Also….unlike any hardwood, the softwood doesn’t like to bend if it’s sawn on the quarter. Rift or flat seems to work better, as long as you bend so the grain climbs around the form face down.

I was ready to give up as well….a whole week wasted trying to figure it out, and I was ready to throw in the towel on more than one occasion….then I hit that “magic” combo. I may not even get my project done in time, but I could probably just post the bent parts :) I’m pretty sure anyone who tried to bed theirs would give me votes just for that!

Hey…you could submit just what you have done…......

-- If you can't set a good example, at least serve as a horrible warning... www.rarewoodcreations.com

have you thought about a square body?
worked good on my banjo

-- tn hillbilly

thats to bad. I was looking forward to what you were building.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Keep at it Rikkor. Still 10 days left.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

go for it rikkor we are rootin for ya !!

another project out of my reach that i want to do someday, that looks cool. if you can get that far, you can do anything with wood. I obviously wasn’t here to make comment one way or another for the aforementioned contest, but none-the-less, if you’re turning bowls, pens and eggs and making instruments, you’re going places… I’ll have to figure out how to turn my worm-drive into a lathe to catch up to you.

-- Sometimes my wife wishes that she was a block of wood... ;-)